The interchange of information and money between parties to credit card transactions may be described by the following steps:    Authorization: A cardholder pays for a purchase and a merchant submits a transaction to an acquirer (acquiring bank). The acquirer verifies the credit card number, transaction type and amount with an issuer (card-issuing bank), and reserves that amount of the cardholder's credit limit for the merchant. An authorization will generate an approval code, which the merchant stores with the transaction.    Batching: Authorized transactions are stored in “batches,” which are sent to the acquirer. Batches are typically submitted once per day. If a transaction is not submitted in a batch, the authorization will stay valid for a period determined by the issuer, after which the held amount will be returned back to the cardholder's available credit.    Clearing and Settlement: The acquirer sends the batch transactions through the credit card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer.    Funding: Once the acquirer has been paid, the acquirer pays the merchant. The merchant receives the amount totaling the funds in the batch and will be billed a discount rate(s), which is the fee the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transaction.    Convenience Fee: Credit card associations allow an offset for the discount rate to be charged for certain types of transactions. This offset may be in the form of a convenience fee charged to the card holder. Such convenience fees may be charged by the merchant or a third party. Government offices, for example, may charge citizens the convenience fee to pass this discount rate cost to them.